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By ROBERT LAURIE - Workforce continues to shrink, Obama continues to brag

According to this morning’s job report, the nation added 114,000 jobs, pushing the overall unemployment rate down to 7.8%. The left is sure to seize upon the number and trumpet it as good news. But, if you look a little closer, the reality is a vastly different story.

The report claims that in the past month, the number of unemployed has dropped by 456,000. Sounds good, but the report also states that only 114,000 new jobs were created. That means that roughly 342,000 people left the workforce.

So, when Dems brag that the employment number is the lowest since 2009, what they're really saying is that they've managed to shrink the overall size of the workforce in order to make the numbers look better than they actually are. If you factor in those who've given up on the search for a job, or simply dropped off the far end of the unemployment rolls, the "real" unemployment statistic (what's called the U6 number) stands at 14.7%. That's unchanged from one month ago.

At the same time, they're ignoring the fact that you have to create 200,000 jobs just to keep up with population growth. In addition, the current jobs report shows that part-time jobs increased by 582,000 and the manufacturing actually decreased by 16,000.

Even if we were to take the report at face value, we have to look at the fact that it claims revised numbers show the country added 146,000 jobs per month in July and August. If that's truly the case - which is debatable - the 114,000 added last month actually represents a slowdown, not an uptick.

Every time a Dem claims that this news lowers the unemployment rate to Bush-era levels, it's important to remember that if the same number of people were in the workforce that were in it in 2008, the unemployment rate would be well over 11%.

Moments ago, Mitt Romney pointed this out in a statement released by his campaign.

“This is not what a real recovery looks like." Romney writes. "We created fewer jobs in September than in August, and fewer jobs in August than in July, and we’ve lost over 600,000 manufacturing jobs since President Obama took office. If not for all the people who have simply dropped out of the labor force, the real unemployment rate would be closer to 11 percent. The results of President Obama’s failed policies are staggering – 23 million Americans struggling for work, nearly one in six living in poverty and 47 million people dependent on food stamps to feed themselves and their families. The choice in this election is clear. Under President Obama, we’ll get another four years like the last four years. If I’m elected, we will have a real recovery with pro-growth policies that will create 12 million new jobs and rising incomes for everyone.”

It's a message Mitt needs to reiterate every day from now until November 6th, because you can be sure the left will be spinning the new number as a major positive. In fact, it's absolutely dismal.